19-letter words containing b, u, c, o
- contributing factor — something that is partly responsible for a development or phenomenon
- convergent boundary — a major geologic discontinuity or suture marking the juncture of lithospheric plates that have been joined by plate tectonics.
- coordination number — the number of coordinated species surrounding the central atom in a complex or crystal
- corrosive sublimate — mercuric chloride
- corruption of blood — the impurity before law that results from attainder and disqualifies the attainted person from inheriting, retaining, or bequeathing lands or interests in lands: abolished in 1870.
- counterpoise bridge — another name for bascule bridge
- cuboidal epithelium — epithelium consisting of one or more layers of cells of cuboid or polyhedral shape.
- cudgel one's brains — to think hard about a problem
- darby and joan club — a club for elderly people
- deoxyribonucleoside — a compound composed of deoxyribose and either a purine or a pyrimidine.
- deoxyribonucleotide — an ester of a deoxyribonucleoside and phosphoric acid; a constituent of DNA.
- developable surface — a surface that can be flattened onto a plane without stretching or compressing any part of it, as a circular cone.
- double counterpoint — invertible counterpoint using two transposable voices.
- double-helical gear — herringbone gear.
- dry-bulk cargo ship — a ship that carries an unpackaged dry cargo such as coal or grain; bulk carrier
- financial ombudsman — any of five British ombudsmen: the Banking Ombudsman, set up in 1986 to investigate complaints from bank customers; the Building Society Ombudsman, set up in 1987 to investigate complaints from building society customers; the Insurance Ombudsman, set up in 1981 to investigate complaints by policyholders (since 1988 this ombudsman has also operated a Unit Trust Ombudsman scheme); the Investment Ombudsman set up in 1989 to investigate complaints by investors (the Personal Investment Authority Ombudsman is responsible for investigating complaints by personal investors); and the Pensions Ombudsman, set up in 1993 to investigate complaints regarding pension schemes
- foundation subjects — the subjects studied as part of the National Curriculum, including the compulsory core subjects
- functional database — (database, language) A database which uses a functional language as its query language. Databases would seem to be an inappropriate application for functional languages since, a purely functional language would have to return a new copy of the entire database every time (part of) it was updated. To be practically scalable, the update mechanism must clearly be destructive rather than functional; however it is quite feasible for the query language to be purely functional so long as the database is considered as an argument. One approach to the update problem would use a monad to encapsulate database access and ensure it was single threaded. Alternative approaches have been suggested by Trinder, who suggests non-destructive updating with shared data structures, and Sutton who uses a variant of a Phil Wadler's linear type system. There are two main classes of functional database languages. The first is based upon Backus' FP language, of which FQL is probably the best known example. Adaplan is a more recent language which falls into this category. More recently, people have been working on languages which are syntactically very similar to modern functional programming languages, but which also provide all of the features of a database language, e.g. bulk data structures which can be incrementally updated, type systems which can be incrementally updated, and all data persisting in a database. Examples are PFL [Poulovassilis&Small, VLDB-91], and Machiavelli [Ohori et al, ACM SIGMOD Conference, 1998].
- goldbach conjecture — an unproved theorem that every even integer greater than 2 can be written as the sum of two prime numbers.
- handlebar moustache — a man's moustache having long, curved ends that resemble the handlebars of a bicycle.
- hydroxybutyric acid — ketone body.
- hydroxydaunorubicin — Doxorubicin.
- hyperbolic function — a function of an angle expressed as a relationship between the distances from a point on a hyperbola to the origin and to the coordinate axes, as hyperbolic sine or hyperbolic cosine: often expressed as combinations of exponential functions.
- incommensurableness — (rare) Incommensurability.
- internal-combustion — of or relating to an internal-combustion engine.
- knights of columbus — an international fraternal and benevolent organization of Roman Catholic men, founded in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1882.
- logical unit number — (storage) (LUN) A 3-bit identifier used on a SCSI bus to distinguish between up to eight devices (logical units) with the same SCSI ID.
- magnesium carbonate — a white powder, MgCO 3 , insoluble in water and alcohol, soluble in acids, used in dentifrices and cosmetics, in medicine as an antacid, and as a refractory material.
- mary mcleod bethune — Mary McLeod [muh-kloud] /məˈklaʊd/ (Show IPA), 1875–1955, U.S. educator and civil-rights leader.
- membership function — fuzzy subset
- mercurial barometer — mercury barometer.
- minimum iron fabric — cloth used to make clothes that require little ironing
- molecular biologist — a specialist in the study of biological phenomena at the molecular level
- mordvinian republic — a constituent republic of W central Russia, in the middle Volga basin. Capital: Saransk. Pop: 888 700 (2002). Area: 26 200 sq km (10 110 sq miles)
- mud object oriented — (games) (MOO) One of the many MUD spin-offs (e.g. MUSH, MUSE, and MUX) created to diversify the realm of interactive text-based gaming. A MOO is similar to a MUSH in that the users themselves can create objects, rooms, and code to add to the environment. The most frequently used server software for running a MOO is LambdaMOO but alternatives include WinMOO and MacGoesMOO.
- municipal bond fund — a mutual fund that invests in municipal bonds.
- neighbourhood watch — a scheme under which members of a community agree together to take responsibility for keeping an eye on each other's property, as a way of preventing crime
- objectfuscated code — (humour, programming) Object-oriented code which has been abstracted to so many levels that no-one can understand it anymore. A play on obfuscated code.
- obsolescence clause — a clause in an insurance policy that takes account of the obsolescence of the item insured in order to lower the amount to be paid out in the event of a claim
- olive-backed thrush — Swainson's thrush.
- once in a blue moon — very rarely; almost never
- optical double star — two stars that appear as one if not viewed through a telescope with adequate magnification, such as two stars that are separated by a great distance but are nearly in line with each other and an observer (optical double star) or those that are relatively close together and comprise a single physical system (physical double star)
- oxyacetylene burner — a blowpipe for cutting or welding metals at high temperatures
- party-column ballot — Indiana ballot.
- phthalocyanine blue — a pigment used in painting, derived from copper phthalocyanine and characterized chiefly by its brilliant, dark-blue color and by permanence.
- potassium carbonate — a white, granular, water-soluble powder, K 2 CO 3 , used chiefly in the manufacture of soap, glass, and potassium salts.
- pseudo-biographical — of or relating to a person's life: He's gathering biographical data for his book on Milton.
- public-opinion poll — a poll taken by sampling a cross section of the public in an effort to predict election results or to estimate public attitudes on issues.
- put one's back into — to devote all one's strength to (a task)
- republic of ireland — John, 1838–1918, U.S. Roman Catholic clergyman and social reformer, born in Ireland: archbishop of St. Paul, Minn., 1888–1918.